Trim strips for vehicle door openings

ABSTRACT

A trim strip for a vehicle door opening has a U-shaped channel to fit around a flange around a door opening. The channel has, on one side, a resilient sealing member to engage a vehicle door and, on the opposite side, an elongate resilient pad secured along the channel by a snap-on fastener to protect a vehicle occupant from injury on the flange.

ilnited States Patent [1 1 [111 3,797,857 Reeves Mar. '19, 1974 TRIMSTRIPS FOR VEHICLE DOOR 3,195,948 7/1965 Sturtevant et a1. 296/146 xOPENINGS Inventor: John Vincent Reeves, Coventry,

England Assignee: Chrysler United Kingdom'Limited,

London, England Filed: June 16, 1972 Appl. No.: 263,445

Foreign Application Priority Data July 13, 1971 Great Britain 32833/71U.S. CI 280/150 B, 296/28 R Int. Cl. B60:- 13/02 Field of Search 280/150B; 296/28 R, 84 K,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Loew 7. 280/150 B FOREIGN PATENTSOR APPLICATIONS 1,053,360 12/1966 Great Britain 280/150 B PrimaryExaminer-Stanley H. Tollberg Assistant Examiner-James M. SlatteryAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Mawhinney & Mawhinney [57] ABSTRACT A trimstrip for a vehicle door opening has a U-shaped channel to fit around aflange around a door opening. The channel has, on one side, a resilientsealing memher to engage a vehicle door and, on the opposite side, anelongate resilient pad secured along the channel by a snap-on fastenerto protect a vehicle occupant from injury on the flange.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED MAR 19 1974 SHEET 2 [IF 2 TRIMSTRIPS FOR VEHICLE DOOR OPENINGS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field ofthe Invention The invention relates to trim strips for fitting to aflange encircling the inner periphery of a vehicle door opening.

2. Description of the prior art Hitherto trim strips for the flangeencircling the inner periphery of a vehicle door opening have comprisedan elongate U-shaped channel to fit on the flange and a resilient doorseal member on one side of the channel to form a seal with the vehicledoor. Such trim strips suffered from the disadvantage that the channelprovided little or no protection for a vehicle occupant against injuryon the flange.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention provides a trim strip for avehicle door opening comprising an elongate U-shaped channel forengaging around a flange on the inner periphery of the door opening, aresilient door seal member secured to the outer side of one limb of theU and an elongate resilient pad extending along and secured to the outerside of the other limb of the U-shaped channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of partofa motor vehicle body;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view through a trim strip for the door openings onthe vehicle body;

FIG. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section on the line 4l of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a section on the line 55 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring firstly to FIG. 1 ofthe drawings there is shown a vehicle body each side of which has frontand rear door openings 11 and 12. A door post 13 is provided between theopenings. An inturned flange 1 1 is formed around the inner periphery ofeach front door opening adjacent the inside of the vehicle and a similarflange 15 is formed around the inner periphery of each rear dooropening.

Referring now to FIG. 2 of the drawings there is shown a trim strip 16which is mounted on portions of the flange 14 of each door opening. Thetrim strip comprises a U-shaped channel 17 which is moulded in polyvinylchloride (PVC) and incorporates a strip metal reinforcement 18 whichholds the channel in the U- shaped form shown. On the inside of thechannel towards the open end ofthe channel there are two flaps 17aintegral with the two walls of the channel which are inclined towardsthe base of the channel. When the channel is inserted on the flange 14the flaps 17a grip the flange to prevent the channel from beingdislodged from the flange.

Secured to the outer periphery of one side of the channel is a hollowresilient door seal 19. The outer periphery on the other side of thechannel is formed with an integral barb 20 extending along the lengththereof. An elongate resilient plastics pad 21 is formed with a J-shapedrecess in one side thereof to embrace said other side of the channel anda part of the base thereof. The pad is further formed with a recesswhich is similar in cross section to the barb 20 to receive the barb andthereby retain the pad 21 on the channel. The pad 21 is formed byextrusion in PVC.

The trim strip illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings extends around theflange 14 of the front door opening from the location 22 adjacent thelower end of the forward edge of the door opening, up the forward edgeand along the upper edge up to the door post 13.

FIG. 3 of the drawings is a section through the vehicle body along theforward edge of the front door opening at the windscreen pillar 23. Thedrawing shows part of the vehicle front door 24 engaging the door seal19. It will be seen that the resilient pad 21 overlies the channel 17and flange 14 on the inside of the door opening and thus protects anoccupant of the vehicle from impact on the channel and flange.

In the rear opening 12 of the vehicle body the trim strip illustrated inFIG. 2 extends along the flange 15 from the door post 13 along the upperand rearward edges of the opening down to the location 25. A singleresilient pad 21 is provided for the trim strips on both the front andrear openings and the pad 21 extends across the interior panel of thedoor post 13 at the upper end of the door post.

A different form of trim strip is applied to the remaining parts of theflanges 14 and 15 of the front and rear door openings, the barb 20 andpad 21 of the strip 16 being omitted. The strip is otherwise identicalto that of FIG. 2. The modified strip is illustrated in FIG. 5 of thedrawings which is a section through the door post 13 and the modifiedstrips are indicated at 26. A padded trim panel 27 is secured on theinside of the door post 13 by snap fasteners 28 and the edges of thetrim panel 27 overlie the strips 26 along the forward and rearward edgesof the door post. The trim panel 27 comprises a metal or hardboardbacking 29 with a resilient foam padding 30 extending over the outwardlypresented face and around the edge portions as indicated at 31. Thepadding may have an integral impervious skin or may be covered by aseparate sheet of trim material. 7

The strip 26 for the forward opening extends down the door post 13 fromthe upper end thereof where the channel is mitred and butt welded to oneend of the channel 17 and then forwardly along the lower end of theopening to approximately the point 22 where it is butt welded to theother end of the channel 17. In the rearward opening 12 the strip 26starts at the upper end of the door post 13 where it is mitred and buttwelded to one end of the channel I7 and extends downwardly to the lowerend of the post and thence along the lower edge of the openingapproximately to the point 25, where it is butt welded to the other endof the channel 17. The door seal portions of the above joints aresecured together by adhesive.

Similar trim strips are applied to the forward and rearward openings onthe other side of the vehicle.

I claim:

1. A trim strip for a vehicle door opening comprising an elongateU-shaped channel having side walls connected by a base for mounting onthe flange on the inner periphery of the door opening, an elongateresilient door seal member extending along and secured to one side wallof the channel, an elongate resilient pad which extends along the otherside wall of the channel, the pad having a j-shaped recess in one sidethereof which embraces said side wall of the channel, and at channel hasa U-shaped core formed in spring metal and embedded within the thicknessof the channel wall for pressing the channel limbs into grippingengagement with a flange.

5. A trim strip as claimed in claim 1 wherein the seal is adhered to thechannel.

6. A trim strip as claimed in claim 1 wherein the seal comprises ahollow tube having a base secured to the channel.

* k a a

1. A trim strip for a vehicle door opening comprising an elongateU-shaped channel having side walls connected by a base for mounting onthe flange on the inner periphery of the door opening, an elongateresilient door seal member extending along and secured to one side wallof the channel, an elongate resilient pad which extends along the otherside wall of the channel, the pad having a j-shaped recess in one sidethereof which embraces said side wall of the channel, and at least apart of the base portion of the channel, a projecting arrow-shapedelement formed integrally on said other side wall of the channel and acomplementary arrow-shaped recess in the adjacent face of the pad inwhich said element engages to hold the pad on the channel.
 2. A tripstrip as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pad is an extrusion formed fromresilient P.V.C. plastics.
 3. A trip strip as claimed in claim 1 whereinthe channel is a plastics extrusion.
 4. A trim strip as claimed in claim1 wherein the channel has a U-shaped core formed in spring metal andembedded within the thickness of the channel wall for pressing thechannel limbs into Gripping engagement with a flange.
 5. A trim strip asclaimed in claim 1 wherein the seal is adhered to the channel.
 6. A trimstrip as claimed in claim 1 wherein the seal comprises a hollow tubehaving a base secured to the channel.